I write about style, art, culture, watches and high-end cars as a staff writer for Forbes. Whether I'm talking with Bernard Arnault, Jeff Koons or Ralph Lauren, my goal is to explore life from the inside, to figure out what success means to those who believe they have attained it--or are well on their way. Write to me at helliott@forbes.com. You can also follow me on Twitter (@HannahElliott), Instagram (@HannahElliottxo), Facebook and Google+.

At Home With Elon Musk: The (Soon-to-Be) Bachelor Billionaire

It’s Thursday morning in Bel Air, California, and Elon Musk, his cheeks still wet with aftershave, has retreated to the basement theater of his 20,000-square-foot French Nouveau mansion, which he’s converted into a man cave suitable for business or play.

The leather couch and coffee table inscribed with the periodic table serve as a de facto workstation, a retreat for the e-mails he shoots out past midnight and his research on such things as the Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator, the “best heat shield known to man.” But rather than trudge to the office when the rest of the world is awake, the 40-year-old billionaire founder of electric carmaker Tesla and SpaceX, the first private company to put a vehicle into orbit, is teaching me how to play BioShock, an Ayn Rand–esque first-person shooter epic.

“It talks about Hegelian dialectics being the things that determine the course of history,” Musk explains, his eyes fixed on the screen. “They’re sort of competing philosophies or competing meme sets, and you can look at modern history where it’s not so much genetics going into battle as a battle of meme structures.”

Yes, he talks like that. While he’s playing video games.

The games go on for 90 minutes. While work for both of his companies beckons—Tesla was readying the debut of an SUV aimed at eco-conscious soccer moms and plans to launch a new sedan in July; SpaceX, meanwhile, was testing its Dragon spacecraft for a docking with the International Space Station—Musk clearly relished the distraction, carving out still more time for a tour of the house.

Situated atop a hidden hill that overlooks the Pacific Ocean, the 1.6-acre grounds boast a tennis court (Musk’s brother, Kimbal, jokes that their infrequent matches get so competitive that he needs to run away after making a winning shot), an outdoor pool, and a footpath leading to a giant tree upon which Musk, the father of 7-year-old twins and 5-year-old triplets, all boys, plans to build a tree fort. The inside is just as grand, with all the expected billionaire trappings, down to the cavernous wine cellar and the master bathroom so big Musk put a treadmill in it.

What was missing from all of this, though, was any sign of actual people. The white shelves in a towering library stand embarrassingly bare. (Musk devours books exclusively on his iPhone, most recently The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs.)

The pool is covered, the manicured backyard devoid of toys, lawn chairs, or a grill. The boys are at school—Musk, having been through a much-publicized divorce, shares custody of his sons with his college sweetheart, Justine. His second wife, Talulah Riley, a 26-year-old British actress, is, I’m told, back in her home country filming a movie. There is no evidence—clothes, shoes, makeup—of a female inhabitant. There aren’t even any personal photographs to speak of, save a 3-foot panoramic shot of Musk and Riley watching an eclipse in front of a private yacht on some remote tropical beach, his arms wrapped around her as they both gaze skyward, laughing. On another wall, a photo of a chair seems to be the placeholder that came with the frame.

I ask Musk if he has a dog. Yes, he says, two. But no dish, leashes, or chew toys are in sight. The house, he tells me, is leased. So is the furniture. Although Musk lives here, in other words, it would be an exaggeration to call this his home. For now, it’s a way station, the perfect place to play dystopian video games.

At 6-foot-1, with broad shoulders and legs that match his first name (Elon is Hebrew for “oak tree,” although Musk’s family comes from Pennsylvania Dutch stock, not Jewish), he fills out the burgundy Tesla Roadster—which he chose over his Audi Q7 and Porsche 911—for the 20-mile drive to the Hawthorne-based headquarters of SpaceX. Pulling onto the 405, he attentively configures the optimum temperature and wind levels for the convertible; programs a mix of Robbie Williams, Adele, and Beethoven’s Fifth; and drives fast and clinically. It’s all done in a manner that reflects his public perception as a robotic genius—the real-life inspiration for the Tony Stark character in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man.

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Allow me to set the history straight. Musk founded X. com, which was to be an online bank, and Bill Harris of Intuit became the CEO. They were fortunate enough to acquire Confinity, founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. Confinity’s first product was called Paypal. The combined company succeeded despite Elon Musk. Bill Harris, the CEO of PayPal, quit cause he could not take Musk anymore. Finally, the investors put in Peter Thiel to run the company despite his inexperience, banishing Musk altogether.

Tesla and SpaceX are simply taxpayer funded boondoggles that will go down in flames.

Also, what is a SoHo house? I’ve now seen this terminology about a million times and I don’t understand it. My guess is that it is a fancy name for a Starbucks, or either way it has something to do with coffee.

This man has gone through more pretty girls than I can count. You would think that being rich, handsome and personable would make it easy for him to engage in matrimony. I guess he isn’t the marriagble type.

the video of Elon and you with the samurai sword reminds me of the time I bought my first samurai sword at the flea market. It had throwing knives in the hilt and was just really awesome in every way.

Then my idiot friend came over while I wasn’t home, and he hit my little sister with the sword and fortunately she just had a small cut on her stomach. But I had to give the sword to my friend after that incident.

Pennsylvania Dutch? From Pretoria, South Africa? I know that US reporters are infamous for their insularity, but come on, now, at least get a map out to find where “Africa” is situated; and, perhaps, do a little research about the European settlers of South Africa.

Thanks for your comment, Boer$nurfer. Actually, even though Elon did grow up mostly in South Africa, and his father is indeed South African, his mother and her family are from North America. According to Elon Musk and his mother Maye, that family is originally of and still identifies with its Pennsylvania Dutch heritage.